How to get your startup cited by ChatGPT and Perplexity

"How do we show up in ChatGPT?" is now the question founders ask right after "how do we rank on Google?" The internet is full of answers. Most of them are guesses presented as findings.

This post does something narrower. It sticks to what OpenAI, Perplexity and Microsoft have actually documented about how their AI search products find and cite sources, then turns each documented mechanism into something a startup can do this week.

Short answer: AI search products cite pages they find through web search. So: let their search crawlers in (OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot), get indexed by the search engines they use, and publish pages that directly answer the search-style questions your buyers ask: "best X for Y," "X vs Y," "X alternatives," "X pricing." Then get listed honestly on third-party pages that rank for those questions.

What's documented, and what isn't

Start with an honest boundary. No AI company has published ranking factors for citations. Anyone claiming to know the exact weights is guessing, or selling.

What is documented is the mechanism: how the product searches, which crawler it uses, and how it credits sources. That turns out to be enough to act on.

How ChatGPT search finds sources

OpenAI's help article on searching the web with ChatGPT describes the process. ChatGPT decides when current web information would help. When it does, it "typically rewrites your query into one or more targeted queries" and sends them to search providers. After seeing the first results, it "may send additional, more specific queries."

OpenAI's example: a researcher asks "what's the latest on the development of drugs that target CCR8 for cancer?" and ChatGPT searches for "CCR8 immunotherapy drug development 2025."

Notice what happened. A long conversational question became a short, search-engine-style query. That's the query your page has to win. The article also notes that if memory is on, ChatGPT may use saved memories when rewriting a query, so two users asking the same thing can trigger different searches.

On where results come from, OpenAI's Enterprise and Edu search page says ChatGPT "may share disassociated search queries with the Bing search engine" to return web results. OpenAI talks about "search providers" in general. Bing is the one it names.

Then there's the crawler. OpenAI's bot documentation says OAI-SearchBot is "used to surface websites in search results in ChatGPT's search features," and is explicit about the consequence of blocking it: "Sites that are opted out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers."

How Perplexity finds sources

Perplexity's help center describes it as searching the web for each question and answering with numbered citations that link to the original sources. Its bot documentation describes two agents:

• PerplexityBot is "designed to surface and link websites in search results on Perplexity," and isn't used to train foundation models. Perplexity recommends allowing it in robots.txt if you want to appear.
• Perplexity-User fetches pages when users ask questions, and "generally ignores robots.txt rules" because a person started the request.

Perplexity hasn't published how it ranks sources. Plenty of third-party articles claim to know. We haven't seen primary evidence for their specifics, so we won't repeat them.

Where you can see citation data

Microsoft currently shares the most detail with site owners. In February 2026 it launched an AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools. It shows how often your pages are cited in Microsoft Copilot and Bing's AI summaries, which pages are cited, and the "grounding queries," the phrases the AI used when it retrieved your content. A June 2026 update added citation share and intent grouping.

Microsoft's guidance alongside it is worth reading, because it's specifically about what gets cited: strengthen depth and expertise, improve structure and clarity with headings, tables and FAQ sections, support claims with evidence, and keep content current.

Grounding queries are the closest thing to a keyword report for AI search. If you do one thing after reading this, set up Bing Webmaster Tools and look at them.

What to do, mechanism by mechanism

1. Let the search crawlers in

If OAI-SearchBot is blocked, ChatGPT search won't show you. If PerplexityBot is blocked, Perplexity recommends you allow it to appear. Check both, plus Claude-SearchBot and Bingbot, with our AI crawler checker.

Watch for blocks outside robots.txt too. A CDN "block AI bots" toggle can stop search crawlers along with training crawlers. Our guide to robots.txt, llms.txt and AI crawlers explains how to allow search but refuse training if you want that split.

2. Be indexed where they search

ChatGPT sends rewritten queries to search providers, and OpenAI names Bing as one. So being well indexed in Bing isn't optional anymore.

• Verify your site in Bing Webmaster Tools. You can import it from Google Search Console.
• Submit your sitemap there.
• Consider IndexNow, which notifies Bing and other participating engines when pages change. Google doesn't participate, so keep your sitemap honest for Google.

And keep doing normal SEO. Google's AI features rank on its core systems too, which we cover in AI Overviews and AI Mode for founders.

3. Win the rewritten query

Since the assistant turns a chat into a search query, think about what that query looks like for your category. Buyers asking "what should I use to invoice clients as a freelancer in Germany?" probably trigger searches like "invoicing software freelancers Germany" or "best invoicing app EU VAT."

Pages that tend to match those searches:

• "Best X for Y" and category pages, where you're honestly one of several options.
• "X vs Y" comparisons with facts you've checked.
• "X alternatives" pages for the products people are leaving.
• Pricing and "how much does X cost" pages.
• Specific how-tos for problems your product solves.

Put the direct answer in the first paragraph, in the HTML, not behind a script or a tab. A clear answer followed by evidence is what Microsoft's guidance describes, and it's what any reader wants.

4. Be on the pages that already rank

Your own site is one candidate for a citation. The pages that already rank for "best X" are others, and you can't write them yourself. You can make sure you're on them, honestly:

• Relevant, reviewed directories.
• Launch platforms with permanent product pages. A free launch on LaunchRanked gives you one, with a followed link after human review.
• Comparison and review sites in your category.
• Communities where your category is discussed, as a real participant.

Keep the facts identical everywhere: name, one-line description, category, pricing model. When many independent pages agree on what you are, it's easier for any system to describe you correctly.

What not to do: Google's AI guide warns that "seeking inauthentic 'mentions' across the web isn't as helpful as it might seem." Fake reviews, planted forum posts and paid "AI citation" schemes aren't a plan. They're a liability.

5. Write what can't be generated

A model already knows the generic version of every article. What it can't get elsewhere is your data, your experience and your honest comparisons. Google calls this "non-commodity content." It's also what makes your page worth citing as a source instead of summarizing.

Measuring whether it's working

• Analytics: OpenAI's publisher FAQ says ChatGPT adds utm_source=chatgpt.com to referral links. Filter your analytics by that source. Perplexity visits usually show up as referrals from perplexity.ai.
• Bing Webmaster Tools: citations, cited pages and grounding queries for Copilot.
• Search Console: the Generative AI performance report for AI Overviews and AI Mode impressions.
• Manual prompt tracking: a fixed list of buyer questions, checked on a schedule. We lay out the whole method in how to measure AI visibility without paid tools.

If you'd rather use software, we compare options on best AI visibility trackers. Our own Autopilot, in early access, tracks 25 prompts across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude alongside the content work.

The short version

1. Allow OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot and Bingbot.
2. Get indexed in Bing as well as Google.
3. Publish pages that answer the search-style version of your buyers' questions.
4. Get listed, honestly, on third-party pages that rank for those searches.
5. Measure with UTM data, Bing's AI report and a manual prompt list.

None of this is a hack. It's search, with a model in the middle. If you want the terms, our glossary covers LLM citations, generative engine optimization and AI share of voice.